erase42,
The grinder I mentioned is a unit I built for the purpose of hollow grinding knife blade bevels (I make custom knives). The X axis is powered by a DC gearmotor and its travel is controlled by movable limit switches. This part of the machine simply travels between the left/right limits continuously, is mounted to a couple of shafts using linear ball bearings. The Y feed mechanism consists of a couple of screws; advancement is done by means of built-in hand adjusted micrometers. It's the function I want to automate, so that I can run the machine more or less unattended. A second set of micrometers, also on the Y plane, angles the fixture to allow the grinding wheel edge to follow the curve of the lower edge of the blade blank. I'm content for the moment to leave them the way they are, but would like to integrate them into whatever control system I eventually use.
Tom |